A woman poses for a picture with a cosplayer. Photos: VCG

This might be the scene you never would have expected to see in a milk tea shop: A delivery rider climbed onto a platform, held up a poster featuring five animated male characters and then called out each character's name and distinguishing features to fellow couriers, warning them not to mix up the merchandise.

According to staff, the store was producing several thousand cups of milk tea throughout the day. Similar scenes have unfolded at the brand's outlets across China, all triggered by a collaboration with an otome game, whose loyal players rush to collect limited-edition merchandise featuring their favorite virtual companions.

The frenzy reflects the extraordinary popularity of otome games - romance simulation titles normally designed primarily for adult women that involve borderline provocative content - which have attracted millions of players both in China and overseas in recent years. But as the genre continues to expand, society is becoming concerned that minors are gaining easy access to games officially labeled "18+," often by bypassing real-name verification or purchasing pre-verified adult accounts online.

A young woman plays a mobile game.

Age restrictions circumvented

The word otome means "young woman" or "maiden." Otome games place female players at the center of the narrative, allowing them to build romantic relationships and emotional connections with carefully crafted male characters through interactive storytelling. Emotional immersion and relationship-building are at the heart of the genre's appeal.

For Wang Meng, a 25-year-old student in Beijing, the shift from Japanese otome games to Chinese titles felt natural. "Chinese otome games offer a much stronger sense of immersion because there is no cultural or language barrier," Wang told the Global Times. 

"Advances in technologies such as 3D graphics also make the experience much more realistic. They fulfill a kind of fantasy about ideal emotional relationships."

Li Baile, a senior student at Chongqing Normal University, said she was initially drawn to the genre by its character development and interactive storytelling. 

"Many adult female players value the well-developed characters and the emotional experience they provide," Li told the Global Times. "The sense of companionship is a major attraction."

Yet that emotional appeal has increasingly reached younger audiences, raising concerns over minors' access to such games.

According to state broadcaster CCTV News, a 13-year-old girl in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang Province, became hooked on an otome game after seeing promotional videos on short-video platforms in September 2025. Although the game required users to be at least 18 years old, she secretly used her mother's identity card to complete the real-name registration.

The unauthorized registration was only the beginning. Over the next three months, the girl spent more than 7,000 yuan ($1033.93) on in-game purchases. After her mother discovered the spending and recovered the account, the teenager simply bought a pre-registered account online and continued playing.

According to her mother, the girl's total spending on the game and related merchandise eventually approached 30,000 yuan. To avoid parental supervision, she secretly purchased another mobile phone and often stayed up until one or two o'clock in the morning playing the game, seriously affecting both her studies and her health.

Although most otome games explicitly identify themselves as "for adults aged 18 and above" and require real-name registration, these safeguards often prove ineffective in practice.

Searches on major Chinese e-commerce platforms reveal a thriving market for so-called "pre-registered accounts" that have already completed identity verification and often contain advanced game progress and rare collectible items. Prices range from hundreds of yuan to thousands of yuan.

Many sellers advertise instant account transfers and even guarantee compensation if the account is reclaimed or banned. When asked whether minors could use these accounts, some sellers responded vaguely, only emphasizing that they could change the account's registered identity information, while others openly stated that buyers' ages would not be verified. As a result, although game developers have established an 18-year-old threshold, the widespread online trade in verified accounts continues to undermine the effectiveness of real-name authentication.

A player visits a booth for a mobile game in Shanghai.

Finding a balance

For adult players, spending money on randomized in-game draws often reflects emotional attachment to virtual characters. Most adults are able to manage those relationships rationally. For minors, however, the same monetization mechanisms can become highly addictive.

"Otome games are clearly unsuitable for minors," Li said. "Their cognitive development is still incomplete, and the games' spending mechanisms can easily encourage impulsive purchases among young people who have no independent financial means."

Wang said she understands parents' concerns but believes that weak enforcement of anti-addiction measures, coupled with insufficient parental supervision, remains the core problem. She argued that game developers should shoulder greater responsibility by adopting stricter verification measures, including upgraded facial recognition systems, while taking stronger action against the illegal trade in pre-registered accounts.

Wu, an industry practitioner based in Shanghai, however, told the Global Times that technology alone cannot solve the problem. "Identity theft by minors and the resale of verified accounts on e-commerce platforms are challenges facing the entire industry as well as regulators," Wu said. 

"It is difficult for game companies to eliminate these loopholes on their own."

Zhang Linghan, dean of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence Law of China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times that as otome games satisfy the increasing emotional needs of adult women, preventing minors from becoming unintended participants has become a shared responsibility for game developers, regulators, schools and families alike.

Zhang cautioned against placing all the blame on games themselves, arguing that inadequate emotional support in real life often lies at the root of excessive immersion in virtual worlds.

In January, eight Chinese government departments, including the Cyberspace Administration of China, jointly issued new rules classifying online content harmful to minors. The rules require online content that may affect minors' well-being to carry prominent warning labels and define harmful content across multiple categories, including information that may encourage minors to imitate or engage in harmful behavior or may negatively affect minors' values.

Moreover, China rolled out a set of regulations, which took effect on July 15, aiming to curb emotional dependency on AI-powered companion bots, explicitly prohibiting AI systems from encouraging addictive use, and requiring mandatory reminders after more than two hours of continuous use. The regulations also explicitly ban providers from offering virtual intimate relationships - including virtual companions - to minors, per Xinhua. 

Alongside stronger regulation, experts emphasize that governance should extend beyond technical restrictions alone. Rather than treating otome games as the sole culprit, society should focus on helping young people develop healthy emotional support systems, stronger digital literacy and a critical understanding of how games are designed to encourage engagement and spending, Zhang noted.

Ultimately, the goal is not to eliminate entertainment, but to strike a sustainable balance between enjoyment and protection in an increasingly digital world, Zhang said.